News archive 2014

The so-called Oriental, Philippine, Invasive and Asian Papaya fruit flies, the study shows, all belong to the same biological species, Bactrocera dorsalis, which is causing incalculable damage to horticultural industries and food security across Asia, Africa and the Pacific.

How can governments, farmers orgenisations and the private sector seize current global momentum and galvanize concrete action in support of family farmers beyond 2014? This is the central question at the two-day Global Dialogue on Family Farming (GDFF), opened at FAO headquarters today.

The Global Community of Practice on Food Loss Reduction aims to become a global reference point that facilitates the sharing of information and linkages between stakeholders including public entities, civil society and the private sector.

"Hidden hunger" featured prominently at a BRICS- (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) led public discussion on nutrition held at FAO on Wednesday, ahead of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) scheduled to take place in November 2014.

The European Union (EU) and FAO in collaboration with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) have launched a €41 million programme to bolster sustainable land management and restore drylands and degraded lands in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The FAO and National Geographic partnership envisages cooperation, a regular dialogue and access to FAO expertise, knowledge exchange, content-sharing, cross promotion, joint activities and participation at events and on publishing platforms.

Nine out of 10 of the world’s 570 million farms are managed by a family, making the family farm a crucial agent of change in pursuing sustainable food security and eradicating hunger in the future, according to a new U.N. report released today. Family farms produce about 80 percent of the world’s food. Their prevalence and output mean they “are vital to the solution of the hunger problem” afflicting more than 800 million people, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva wrote in the introduction to FAO’s new State of Food and Agriculture 2014 report.

While substantial progress has been made in the fight against hunger in recent years, more than 800 million people remain hungry and efforts need to be increased to reach the global target of cutting the percentage of hungry people in half by 2015, said FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva at the annual World Food Day.

Governments from around the world today approved a landmark set of principles meant to guide investment in agriculture and food systems around the world, aimed at assuring that cross-border and corporate investment flows lead to improved food security and sustainability and respect the rights of farm and food workers.

China has announced a $50 million donation to FAO to support the Organization's program of "South-South cooperation" to improve food security and promote sustainable agricultural development over the next five years.